Finished chemo today, yahoo!
BCNA klaxon please! So…. as everyone says here, and it’s hard to believe at times, you do get through chemo. Today I rang the bell, yay! I got to the end of 3 months x 3 weekly AC and 12 x weekly Taxol) and very happy to see the end of it.
Apart from celebrating I wanted to thank everybody involved with this forum, particularly those who ensure new posters are responded to and the moderators who keep it a safe, sane and welcoming environment. It’s been a big source of information and reassurance for me as I made my way through a classic diagnosis (TNBC), surgery (single mastectomy, no node involvement, they took 3 to check) and chemo route. No radiation required. Every personal story no matter how big, small, new or advanced helped me stay on track, thank you.
How was it? Well, you learn on the job and work out the pattern for both the three-weekly and weekly treatments. Things that I learned, or that helped me were: keep eating and keep moving, even if it’s only a tiny bit on the bad days. I started loosing weight on AC as the weird relationship with food kicked in: mouth ulcers (who knew toast was your enemy!), heartburn (never had that before) and not nausea because I took the drugs but the altered taste and general squeamishness that comes with chemo. Inside a kitchen cupboard I wrote a list of simple things to eat/prepare when I just could not get inspired and was staring into space feeling yuck and knew I should eat (eg. stock cube in boiling water with toast to dip, noodles etc). I ate loads of fruit (summer bonus) and tomatoes survived the regime so salads and boiled eggs filled gaps. Family and friends helped with more substantial meals.
Taxol was less demanding as my reading on here had me hoping it would be and the hardest was this last four weeks really. So close and yet so far with the fatigue kicking in, sometimes I thought I would like to just sleep my way through to the end. My weight stabilised and my hair started growing back round about Taxol 5 or 6. Neuropathy kicked in about then too and will be with me for a while I suspect. Not too bad but inconvenient and a bit weird. My nails are stained and weak but keeping them very short helps. Everybody remarks on how clear my skin is, go figure, either another side effect or the six months of no alcohol (my choice as I felt vaguely hungover most of the time anyway) and the plain diet. That’s about it. I have 3 weeks free before I go back to work (I took six months off to do this) and I plan to forget everything and enjoy myself until then, especially next week when there will be no bloods or chemo!!
Good luck to all travelling the same road, this resource is terrific and I will no doubt be back as it will always be relevant.
